Ks  U  & .  n 


A  frica  in  the  World  Democracy 


*§' 


ADDRESSES  DELIVERED  AT  THE  ANNUAL 
MEETING  OF  THE  NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION 
FOR  THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF  COLORED  PEOPLE 
JANUARY  SIX,  NINETEEN  NINETEEN,  AT 
CARNEGIE  HALL,  NEW  YORK  CITY,  BY 


HORACE  MEYER  KALLEN 
JAMES  WELDON  JOHNSON 


WITH  INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS  BY  JOHN  R. 
SHILLADY,  SECRETARY,  N.  A.  A.  C.  P.,  SUM¬ 
MARY  OF  ADDRESS  BY  DR.  WILLIAM  HENRY 
SHEPPARD,  AND  A  STATEMENT  ON  “1HE 
FUTURE  OF  AFRICA”  BY  WM.  E.  BURGHARDT 
Du  BOIS,  DIRECTOR  OF  PUBLICATIONS  AND 
RESEARCH,  N.  A.  A.  C.  P.  ::  ::  - 


PRINTED  BY  THE 


National  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Colored  People 

70  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 
JANUARY,  1919 


Price  10c 

0 Special  Rates  for  Larger 
Quantities) 


“We  Can,  if  We  Will,  Inaugurate  on  the  Dark  Continent, 
a  Great  Crusade  for  Humanity — W.  E.  B.  DtjBois. 


AFRICA  IN  THE  WORLD  DEMOCRACY 


Introductory  Remarks  of  John  R.  Shillady.* 


We  are  met  here  as  Americans  in  a  great  time  of  the  world’s 
history.  The  subject  which  we  are  to  consider  tonight  is  one 
about  which  no  American  need  make  apology  and  concerning 
which  every  American  must  express  not  only  concern  and  interest 
but  the  deepest  and  widest  sympathy  of  his  soul.  Heretofore, 
when  men  have  met  to  talk  about  Africa  they  may  have  met  to 
talk  about  the  profits  that  might  be  made  from  the  economic 
penetration  of  Africa;  they  may  have  met  to  consider  the  con¬ 
dition  of  the  alleged  “downtrodden  and  benighted  savages”  to 
determine  whether  they  should  carry  to  the  Africans  some  re¬ 
ligious  doctrine  to  which  the  natives  might  be  converted. 

But  we  are  met  tonight  to  consider  the  condition  of  Africa 
in  no  superior  spirit,  in  no  patronizing  spirit,  but  in  a  spirit  of 
deep  concern  for  the  welfare  of  the  black  peoples  of  that  great 
continent.  In  common  with  all  true  democrats  and  lovers  of 
liberty  everywhere,  we  would  wish  not  only  to  safeguard  that 
welfare,  but  as  far  as  may  be  practical,  to  apply  the  principle  of 
self  determination  to  Africans  and  to  throw  around  them  the 
protection  of  the  united  free  peoples  of  the  world,  if,  as  we  hope, 
there  may  come  to  pass  such  a  peace  union  of  free  peoples  as  was 
the  driving  force  of  America’s  spiritual  participation  in  the  world 
conflict. 

When  the  German  armies  came  hurtling  themselves  across 
the  plains  of  Belgium,  the  whole  world  was  startled  to  a  new 
realization  of  the  menace  involved  in  the  will  to  power.  We 
did  not  then,  I  believe,  contemplate,  nor  perhaps  do  we  now 
know  or  even  guess  what  great  transformations  may  come  in  the 
early  future.  We  do  know  that  the  old  world  has  gone;  kings 
have  tottered  from  their  thrones;  we  have  seen  the  disintegration 
of  three  great  empires,  Germany,  Austria-Hungary  and  Russia, 
now  seized  by  great  forces,  we  know  not  what — but  certainly 

*  Secretary,  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People,  Chairman  of 
the  Meeting. 


I 


4 

all  struggling  toward  the  light  of  a  fuller  liberty  and  more  com¬ 
plete  justice  for  all  their  peoples. 

Irrespective  of  what  peculiar  views  we  may  hold  on  political, 
economic  or  social  questions,  we  must  all  be  at  one  with  these 
struggling  peoples  in  their  aspirations  for  justice,  in  their  desires 
for  participation  in  those  benefits  which  we  believe  ought  to 
come  out  of  the  terrible  travail  of  this  tremendous  war.  As  the 
poet  has  it: 

“For  though  the  laws  of  justice  seem  to  sleep, 

They  never  sleep, 

But  like  the  ocean’s  flood,  they  creep 
Up  to  the  watermark  of  God; 

And  when  they  ebb,  there  is  but  silent  slime.” 

And  so,  Africa,  we  welcome  you,  we  speak  to  you  of  new 
hopes,  we  point  with  you  to  a  new  day,  a  day  whose  coming  and 
going  we  cannot  measure  and  of  whose  beginning  and  end  we  are 
not  sure,  feeling  confident  only  that  it  shall  be  a  day  of  striving, 
a  day  of  achievement;  not  one  for  the  exercise  by  some  men 
of  power  over  their  fellowmen,  but  a  day  full  of  the  promise 
of  the  new  world  for  which  black  and  white  alike  have  shed  their 
blood  like  water.  As  President  Wilson  put  it  in  one  of  his  last 
addresses  in  this  country,  in  New  York,  on  September  27:  “The 
impartial  justice  meted  out  must  involve  no  discriminations 
between  those  to  whom  we  wish  to  be  just  and  those  to  whom 
we  do  not  wish  to  be  just.  It  must  be  a  justice  that  plays  no 
favorites  and  knows  no  standards  but  the  equal  rights  of  the 
several  peoples.” 

President  Wilson  said  at  another  time,  “We  shall  fight  for 
the  things  which  we  have  always  carried  nearest  our  hearts — 
for  democracy,  for  the  right  of  those  who  submit  to  authority 
to  have  a  voice  in  their  own  government.” 

These  black  peoples  of  Africa  have  had  no  voice  in  their 
own  government.  Perhaps  it  may  be  that  when  the  great  Peace 
Congress  is  over,  they  may  still  have  but  little  voice  in  their 
own  government,  but  certainly,  I  believe  it  is  the  intention  of  the 
forward  looking  men  and  women  of  this  country  and  of  every 
democratic  nation  that  they  as  all  other  peoples  shall  be  included 
in  that  real  and  not  spurious  democracy  to  which  we.  of  this 
nation  at  least,  are  committed  now  and  forever. 


5 


I  want  first  to  introduce  Captain  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
Marshall,  a  man  and  a  soldier,  a  gentleman  and  true  American, 

one  who  I  would  wish  might  have  been  able  to  speak  to  us, 

one  who  before  the  war  would  have  been  able  to  speak  to  us; 

but  the  war  has  left  him  with  clear  mind  and  clear  vision  for 

democracy,  but  with  a  shattered  body.  In  him  we  may  see 
what  the  black  soldier  has  given  to  make  the  world  safe  for 
democracy.  [Captain  Marshall,  whose  physical  condition  made 
it  necessary  for  him  to  be  supported,  stood  for  a  few  moments 
and  was  acclaimed  by  the  large  audience.] 

This  applause  for  Captain  Marshall,  I  take  it,  is  a  tribute 
also  to  all  those  brave  men  of  color  who  have  throughout  the 
war  shown  a  loyalty  and  devotion  second  to  none. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/africainworldOOnati 


7 


THE  FUTURE  OF  AFRICA  AND  A  LEAGUE  OF 

NATIONS. 


Address  by  Prof.  Horace  Meyer  Fallen.* 


The  story  of  the  white  man’s  treatment  of  the  black  man 
in  Africa  is  a  very  long  story;  it  is  a  very  unclean  story;  it  is 
the  recital  of  the  greed  of  a  few  men  using  their  fellows — not 
only  their  black  fellows,  but  their  white  fellows — as  instruments 
with  which  to  enrich  themselves.  The  great  continent  of  Africa 
is  not  particularly  the  white  man’s  interest  as  a  white  man,  but 
for  the  last  half  century  various  traders  have  been  going  to  Africa 
from  England,  from  Belgium,  from  France  and  from  Germany, 
not  primarily  to  sell  to  the  African  native  what  he  needed  to  make 
his  own  life  richer,  better,  more  varied,  but  in  order  to  sell  the 
African  native  what  he  did  not  need  to  make  the  white  man 
richer.  These  traders,  after  selling  the  black  man  rum  and  guns 
of  the  old-fashioned  style  that  could  not  be  shot  as  effectively 
as  the  guns  of  the  new-fashioned  style  which  he  kept  for  himself, 
found  that  after  a  while  the  black  man  resented  being  exploited 
at  the  hands  of  these  traders  and  resisted  them.  x\nd  when  the 
traders  found  that  they  could  not  handle  the  black  men  them¬ 
selves,  they  invited  their  governments  to  do  the  job  for  them. 

When  the  governments  took  over  the  job  they  called  it 
founding  a  colony.  Founding  a  colony  is  “passing  the  buck” 
to  the  government  by  the  trader.  There  is,  for  example,  the 
horrible  story  of  the  Hereros.  The  Hereros  are  black  men  in 
Africa,  rather  fine  fellows.  The  Germans  got  into  the  land  of 
the  Hereros.  They  proceeded  to  deal  with  them  in  precisely 
the  same  way  that  the  Belgians,  eager  to  make  money,  dealt 
with  the  people  of  the  Congo.  The  Hereros  have  been  practically 
decimated,  robbed,  and  enslaved.  The  Hereros  have  been 
crying  for  liberation  from  the  German  yoke.  The  newspapers 
report  that  they  do  not  want  to  be  returned  to  the  Germans, 

*  Author:  William  James  and  Henri  Bergson. 

Creative  Intelligence  ( with  John  Dewey  and  others'). 

The  Book  of  Job  as  a  Greek  Tragedy. 

The  League  of  Nations  Today  and  Tomorrow. 


8 


that  they  want  to  be  under  the  English  flag.  Naturally.  In 
the  handling  of  other  people,  people  of  a  different  race  and  blood 
and  color  and  faith,  the  English  have  learned  a  lesson  both  in 
intelligence  and  in  humanity,  which  is  to  their  great  credit,  but 
even  the  English  with  all  their  intelligence  and  humanity  are 
not  by  themselves  alone  competent  to  be  the  trustees  of  the 
weaker  peoples  of  the  world.  In  point  of  fact,  the  record  of  all 
European  colonies — English  also — in  Middle  Africa  is  an  unclean 
record.  It  is  a  blot  in  the  history  of  the  white  trading  nations. 
And,  in  point  of  fact,  Europe  has  gained  nothing  by  the  exploit¬ 
ations  of  Middle  Africa.  White  men  do  not  want  to  go  there 
to  live.  The  Germans  have  spent  thousands  of  dollars  per  colonist 
to  bring  Germans  to  Middle  Africa,  yet  only  596  out  of  269,441 
persons  went  there  as  settlers.  The  Germans  prefer  to  migrate, 
when  they  migrate  at  all,  to  America.  The  same  thing  is  true 
of  Belgians,  the  Irish  and  the  English,  who,  when  they  do  not 
migrate  to  America,  migrate  to  Australia  or  New  Zealand  or 
Canada. 

Africa  cannot  compete  with  the  United  States  as  an  attx*action 
for  the  surplus  European  population,  and  all  the  talk,  that  very 
lofty  talk,  of  founding  colonies  for  the  advantage  of  the  surplus 
populations  of  Germany  or  any  other  country  is  merely  a  little 
more  of  that  form  of  lying  that  is  called  diplomacy.  In  point  of 
fact,  without  trading  companies,  the  interest  of  Europe  in  Middle 
Africa  would  be  a  negligible  interest.  The  peoples  of  Europe 
have  no  interest  in  Middle  Africa,  but  the  bankers  of  Europe 
have  an  interest  in  Middle  Africa,  and  the  interest  of  the  bankers 
of  Europe  is  antagonistic  to  the  interest  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Africa  and  the  interest  of  the  inhabitants  of  Europe. 

The  story  of  this  interest  may  be  summed  up  as  follows: 
At  first,  when  a  man  starts  a  new  business  he  gets  his  labor  cheap 
and  he  makes  large  profits.  After  a  while  the  workingmen  dis¬ 
cover  that  they  are  being  exploited;  they  discover  that  they  are 
not  getting  a  decent  living,  good  working  conditions,  or  an  adequate 
wage,  and  they  learn  that  in  order  to  get  these  conditions  and 
an  adequate  wage  they  must  organize.  They  begin  to  form  trades 
unions,  and  when  the  trades  unions  finally  become  successful, 
wages  go  up  and  the  profits  of  the  employer  are  correspondingly 
reduced.  After  a  while  he  reaches  the  point  of  being  unwilling 
to  invest  his  money  at  home  because  of  what  he  calls  “the  high 


9 


cost  of  labor,” — as  if  labor  were  a  commodity  that  you  could 
detach  from  a  man  and  buy  and  sell  in  the  open  market  just  as 
you  could  shoes,  bread,  or  a  gun.  Labor  is,  of  course,  not  a 
commodity.  When  a  man  sells  his  labor  he  sells  himself  and 
the  high  cost  of  labor  is  nothing  more  than  the  high  cost  of  human 
life. 

Now,  when  capitalists  find  that  they  cannot  make  as  much 
money  by  investing  their  money  in  business  at  home,  they  begin 
to  export  their  capital.  They  send  their  money  abroad;  they 
send  it  into  what  is  called  undeveloped,  backward  countries — 
Turkey,  Russia,  Morocco,  Algiers,  China,  Mexico,  and  Middle 
Africa.  In  Middle  Africa  labor  is  cheap.  In  Middle  Africa  the 
interest  on  an  invested  dollar  is  enormously  greater  than  it  would 
be  in  the  United  States,  certainly  greater  than  it  would  be  in 
Belgium,  in  Germany,  in  England,  or  in  France.  The  consequence 
is  that  all  over  Europe  financiers  prefer  to  export  their  capital 
instead  of  investing  it  at  home.  They  export  it  to  these  “back¬ 
ward”  countries.  Anything  that  is  not  like  one’s  self  in  color 
or  habits,  or  ways  of  living,  is  declared  backward,  remember, 
even  when  it  is  not.  And  so  the  financiers  and  investors  get 
the  advantage,  in  these  backward  and  undeveloped  countries, 
of  cheap  labor.  They  profit  by  that  cheap  labor,  but  the  com¬ 
petition  of  cheap  labor  in  Middle  Africa,  or  in  India,  or  China, 
or  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  with  labor  in  England,  or  France, 
or  Italy,  or  the  United  States,  or  Germany,  or  Belgium,  is  not 
good  for  labor  at  home.  It  depresses  industry  and  raises  prices. 

Consequently,  it  is  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  masses  of 
men,  it  is  to  the  great  advantage  of  American  citizens — of  the 
'plain  people  of  whom  the  President  of  the  United  States  has  spoken 
again  and  again  and  for  whom  the  President  of  the  United  States 
has  spoken  again  and  again — it  is  to  their  great  advantage  that 
the  conditions  of  life  and  labor  of  any  people  who  must  work 
with  their  hands  for  their  livelihood  shall  be  as  high  as  possible, 
no  matter  where  they  live.  It  is  to  the  advantage  of  the  rank 
and  file  of  mankind  everywhere,  for  this  reason,  that  Middle 
Africa  shall  be  regarded  as  a  trust,  not  in  the  hands  of  financiers, 
but  in  the  hands  of  the  representatives  of  the  plain  people  of  all 
the  world. 

Now,  to  have  such  a  trust  means  to  have  a  League  of  Free 
Nations  which  shall  make  itself  responsible  for  the  well-being  of 


10 


the  people  of  Africa,  which  shall  delegate  this  responsibility  to 
a  commission  chosen,  not  in  view  of  the  amount  of  exploitation 
that  the  Africans  can  be  subjected  to,  but  in  view  of  the  degree 
of  development  that  the  African  native  may  be  encouraged  to 
undertake  for  himself,  under  the  administration  of  such  an  inter¬ 
national  commission.  Such  a  commission  must  be  a  commission, 
first  of  all,  of  experts  who  understand  the  life  and  the  labor  and 
the  interests  of  the  people  of  Middle  Africa.  Such  a  commission 
must  be  a  commission  representing  not  one  nation  but  all  nations. 
In  the  second  place,  it  must  be  a  commission  having  among  its 
members  men  who  are  themselves  of  the  same  race,  of  the  same 
blood,  of  the  same  color  as  the  people  of  Africa.  Such  a  com¬ 
mission  is  indispensable  for  the  protection,  not  merely  of  the 
black  men  in  Africa  but  of  the  white  men  in  the  United  States 
and  in  England  and  in  Germany,  and  all  over  Europe.  Both 
the  common  man  who  is  black  and  the  common  man  who  is  white 
must  be  protected  against  those  sinister  influences  that  have 
caused  war  again  and  again — caused  war  to  satisfy  the  greed 
of  a  few  men  who  have  made  themselves  largely  the  masters  of 
states  because  they  were  the  masters  of  the  finances  of  states, 
men  who  were  using  the  machinery  of  government  for  their  own 
private  purposes. 

At  home,  in  America,  we  call  that  kind  of  business  invisible 
government;  when  it  is  found  in  foreign  countries  we  call  it  secret 
diplomacy.  Secret  diplomacy  is  international  invisible  govern¬ 
ment. 

This  meeting  should  send  a  resolution  to  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  saying  that  it  demands  a  League  of  Free  Nations— 
the  ideal  which  the  President  of  the  LTnited  States  has  so  ably 
and  fully  expounded  and  formulated — which  shall  protect  Middle 
Africa  and  the  labor  of  the  world  from  exploitation.  This  meet¬ 
ing  should  send  a  cable  to  the  President  of  the  United  States 
urging  him  to  be  relentless  in  his  pursuit  of  the  fundamentals  of 
the  American  program  in  the  war.  That  program  began  in  1776. 
We  said  then  that  all  men  were  created  equal  and  endowed  with 
inalienable  rights,  among  them  being  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness — all  men,  regardless  of  creed  or  color,  regardless  of 
the  place  in  which  they  were  born,  and  regardless  of  the  station 
in  life  into  which  they  happen  to  fall.  It  has  taken  us  a  long  and 
difficult  time  to  make  it  clear  that  in  the  United  States  all  men 


11 


are  at  least  legally  free  and  equal.  It  took  a  war  to  establish 
that  fact,  and  in  Lincoln’s  Gettysburg  address  and  his  Eman¬ 
cipation  Proclamation,  we  had  necessary  reaffirmation  of  the 
same  ideals  that  underlay  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  To¬ 
day,  in  Mr.  Wilson’s  address  of  September  27,  1918,  we  have 
the  same  American  principle  applied  to  the  world.  Middle 
Africa  is  an  integral  part  of  the  world.  It  also,  its  people  also, 
are  entitled  to  exactly  the  same  consideration  and  care  as  the 
people  of  Central  Europe,  or  of  Belgium,  or  of  England,  or  of  the 
United  States.  We,  American  citizens,  should  fail  in  our  trust 
if  we  fail  to  call  attention,  now  in  the  eleventh  hour  of  the  war, 
to  this  fact,  for  the  war  is  not  yet  won,  and  the  war  will  not  be 
won  if  a  League  of  Free  Nations  is  not  established.  We  shall 
have  lost  the  war,  we  shall  in  vain,  have  spilt  the  blood  of  pretty 
nearly  ten  million  men,  if  a  League  of  Free  Nations  is  not  estab¬ 
lished;  we  shall  have  abandoned  not  only  Europe  but  the  whole 
world  to  more  exploitation  if  a  League  of  Free  Nations  is  not 
established.  It  is  our  duty  here  and  now  to  do  what  we  can  to 
impress  on  our  representatives  in  the  Senate  and  in  Europe  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States  demand  a  League  of  Nations, 
that  the  people  of  the  United  States  demand  as  an  integral  part 
of  the  duty  of  the  League  of  Nations  the  protection  and  the 
prosperous  development  of  Middle  Africa.  In  the  League  of 
Nations  is  the  hope  and  security  of  the  black  man  in  Africa  no 
less  than  of  the  white  man  in  Eifrope.  Through  the  League  of 
Nations  will  come  the  beginning  of  relief  of  that  injustice  that 
has  been  the  portion  of  the  black  man  at  the  hands  of  the  white, 
from  the  outset  of  his  cruel  history. 


» 


13 


AFRICA  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE  AND  THE 
DESCENDANTS  OF  AFRICANS  IN  OUR 
AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY. 


Address  by  James  Weldon  Johnson.* 


There  has  been  some  slight  criticism  of  the  Advancement 
Association  for  the  steps  it  has  taken  to  bring  Africa  to  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  the  Peace  Conference  and  the  civilized  world.  There 
are  those  who  profess  to  see  in  such  a  move  a  danger  to  the  cause 
of  the  American  Negro.  I  wTish  to  say  that  these  steps  have 
not  been  the  result  of  any  passing  flash  of  enthusiasm;  they 
were  taken  after  careful  thought  and  deliberation. 

As  long  ago  as  the  spring  of  1915,  Dr.  Du  Boisf  published  in 
The  Atlantic  Monthly  an  article  entitled,  “The  African  Roots  of 
War,”  in  which  he  showed  that  when  we  cut  down  through 
the  layers  of  international  rivalries  and  jealousies  we  found  that 
the  roots  of  the  great  war  were  in  Africa. 

As  soon  as  the  armistice  was  signed,  the  Association  received 
a  large  number  of  letters  from  organizations  and  individuals  all 
over  the  country  and  even  from  Canada,  asking  that  some  step 
be  taken  to  influence  world  opinion  regarding  the  disposition 
of  the  former  German  colonies  in  Africa. 

While  these  letters  were  coming  in,  Dr.  Du  Bois  was  already 
outlining  and  developing  a  program.  I  have  here  a  copy  of  his 
memorandum;  the  whole  of  it  is  too  long  to  read.  But  in  order 
that  you  may  have  a  fair  idea  of  what  he  is  bringing  to  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  the  delegates  at  Paris  and  what  he  is  striving  to  impress 
upon  public  opinion  centered  there,  I  shall  read  the  four  para¬ 
graphs  in  which  the  salient  points  are  summarized: 

“If  the  world  after  the  war  decided  to  reconstruct  Africa  in 
accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  Negro  race  and  the  best  interests 
of  civilization,  the  process  might  be  carried  out  as  follows:  The  former 
German  colonies,  with  one  million  square  miles  and  twelve  and  one- 
half  millions  of  inhabitants,  could  be  internationalized.  To  this 

*  Field  Secretary,  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People. 

t  Wm.  E.  Burghatdt  Du  Bois,  Director  of  Publications  and  Research,  National  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People  and  Editor,  “THE  CRISIS”. 


14 


could  be  added  by  negotiation  the  800,000  square  miles  and  nine  million 
inhabitants  of  Portuguese  Africa.  It  is  not  impossible  that  Belgium 
could  be  persuaded  to  add  to  such  a  state  the  900,000  square  miles 
and  nine  million  natives  of  the  Congo,  making  an  international  Africa, 
with  over  two  and  one-half  million  square  miles  of  land  and  over 
twenty  million  people. 

“This  re-organized  Africa  could  be  under  the  guidance  of  organized 
civilization.  The  Governing  International  Commission  should  repre¬ 
sent,  not  simply  governments,  but  modern  culture — science,  commerce, 
social  reform,  and  religious  philanthropy. 

“With  these  two  principles  the  practical  policies  to  be  followed 
out  in  the  government  of  the  new  states  should  involve  a  thorough 
and  complete  system  of  modern  education  built  upon  the  present 
government,  religion  and  customary  law  of  the  natives.  There  should 
be  no  violent  tampering  with  the  curiously  efficient  African  institutions 
of  local  self-government  through  the  family  and  the  tribe;  there  should 
be  no  attempt  at  sudden  “conversion”  by  religious  propaganda. 
Obviously  deleterious  customs  and  unsanitary  usages  must  gradually 
be  abolished  and  careful  religious  teaching  given,  but  the  general 
government  set  up  from  without  must  follow  the  example  of  the  best 
colonial  administrators  and  build  on  recognized  established  foundations 
rather  than  from  entirely  new  and  theoretical  plans. 

“The  chief  effort  to  modernize  Africa  should  be  through  schools. 
Within  ten  years  twenty  million  black  children  ought  to  be  in  school. 
Within  a  generation  young  Africa  should  know  the  essential  outlines 
of  modern  culture  and  groups  of  bright  African  students  should  be 
going  to  the  world’s  great  universities.  From  the  beginning  the 
actual  general  government  should  use  both  colored  and  white  officials 
and  natives  should  be  gradually  worked  in.  Taxation  and  industry 
could  follow  the  newer  ideals  of  industrial  democracy  avoiding  private 
land  monopoly  and  poverty,  promoting  co-operation  in  production 
and  the  socialization  of  income.” 

When  the  opportunity  arose,  the  Advancement  Association 
sent  Dr.  Du  Bois  to  France.  He  went  in  a  three-fold  capacity; 
as  the  special  correspondent  of  The  Crisis  at  the  Peace  Con¬ 
ference;  also  to  collect  first  hand  material  to  go  into  a  history 
of  the  Negro  in  the  Great  War;  and  as  a  representative  of  the 
Association  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  to  bear  all  pressure  possible 
on  the  delegates  at  the  peace  table  in  the  interest  of  the  colored 
people  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  world. 

In  the  latter  capacity  it  is  the  intention  of  Dr.  Du  Bois  to 
call  a  Pan-African  congress  to  meet  in  Paris  and  press  the  question 
of  the  internationalization  of  the  former  German  colonies. 

The  question  will  arise  in  the  minds  of  some  as  to  why  the 
demand  for  self-determination  is  not  included  in  this  program 


15 


for  the  future  of  these  colonies.  It  is  omitted  not  because  of  doubt 
in  either  the  right  of  the  natives  to  self-government  or  their 
ability  for  it,  but  because  of  the  very  practical  reason  that  the 
question  of  the  former  German  colonies  will  come  up  before  the 
Peace  Conference  in  only  three  forms:  their  return  to  Germany, 
their  division  among  the  Allies  or  their  internationalization. 

It  is  idle  to  hope,  even  in  this  era  of  making  the  world  safe 
for  democracy,  that  any  people  will  secure  self-determination 
by  merely  petitioning  for  it  or  even  as  a  matter  of  plain  justice. 
Self-determination  will  be  secured  only  by  those  who  are  in  a 
position  to  force  it.  The  natives  of  all  the  colonies  in  Africa 
may  have  self-determination  whenever  they  are  in  a  position 
to  force  it  from  their  overlords.  The  internationalization  of 
Central  Africa  holds  the  promise  of  being  the  quickest  and  least 
costly  step  by  which  the  natives  can  reach  that  position. 

And  there  is  no  man  more  preeminently  fitted  to  press  this 
matter  than  Dr.  Du  Bois — not  only  on  account  of  his  individual 
ability  but  on  account  of  the  experience  he  gained  and  the  con¬ 
nections  he  formed  at  the  great  Kaces  Congress  which  met  in 
London  in  1911,  to  which  he  was  a  delegate. 

There  are  several  reasons  that  justify  the  National  Association 
in  taking  up  the  question  of  Africa,  and  I  will  give  them  to  you 
briefly : 

In  the  first  place,  the  race  question  in  the  United  States  is 
a  national  question;  the  peace  delegations  neither  of  England, 
France  or  Italy,  would  dare  to  broach  it  at  the  table;  and  it 
is  hardly  probable  that  the  American  delegation  will  voluntarily 
bring  it  up.  Japan  and  China  may  possibly  protest  against 
discrimination  against  Asiatics.  But  not  even  these  two  great 
colored  nations  would  so  far  violate  international  precedent  and 
courtesy  as  to  bring  up  to  the  peace  table  a  matter  which  will 
be  regarded  as  a  domestic  question  with  which  only  the  United 
States  is  concerned. 

I  am  not  now  speaking  of  what  is  right  and  of  what  ought 
to  be  done;  I  am  speaking  of  what,  according  to  all  the  probab¬ 
ilities  and  in  accordance  with  international  law,  precedent,  courtesy 
and  international  red  tape,  will  and  will  not  be  done.  I  am  facing 
the  cold,  hard  facts. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  question  of  Africa  is  an  international 
question;  it  belongs  at  the  peace  table;  every  nation  represented 


16 


there,  from  England  to  Liberia,  can  freely  discuss  it.  Africa 
as  I  have  said,  is  at  the  bottom  of  this  war  and  I  tell  you  we  may 
form  all  the  leagues  of  nations  that  can  be  formed,  but  if  the 
African  question  is  not  set  tled  justly,  we  will  have  wars  and  wars. 
Therefore,  the  African  question  being  an  international  question, 
we  had  sense  enough  to  know  that  we  could  bring  it  before  this 
international  body,  and  perhaps  by  that  step  pursue  the  very 
wisest  and  best  means  of  focusing  the  attention  of  the  peace 
delegates  and  the  entire  civilized  world  on  the  question  of  the 
just  claims  of  the  Negro  everywhere. 

There  is  another  reason  that  justifies  our  interest  in  Africa, 
which  is  not  so  practical  or  material  as  the  one  I  have  just  stated, 
but  which  is  nevertheless  vital  in  its  effects.  It  will  be  a  lamen¬ 
table  condition  when  the  American  Negro  grows  so  narrow  and 
so  self-centered  in  his  own  wrongs  and  sufferings  that  he  has  no 
sympathy  for  the  wrongs  and  sufferings  of  others,  not  even  his 
blood  brothers  in  Africa.  When  he  reaches  the  state  where 
he  wants  everybody  to  be  interested  in  his  condition,  but  has 
no  interest  in  the  condition  of  others,  he  will  have  forfeited  the 
right  to  demand  that  others  be  interested  in  him. 

Still  another  valid  reason  for  taking  up  the  cause  of  Africa 
is  the  dense  ignorance  about  that  land;  not  only  dense  ignorance, 
but  criminal  ignorance.  There  has  been  and  still  is  a  historical 
conspiracy  against  Africa  which  has  successfully  stripped  the 
entire  Negro  race  of  all  credit  for  what  it  contributed  in  past 
ages  to  the  birth  and  growth  of  civilization. 

Makers  of  history  have  taught  the  world  that  from  the 
beginning  of  time  the  Negro  has  never  been  anything  but  a  race 
of  savages  and  slaves.  Anyone  who  is  willing  to  dig  out  the  truth 
can  learn  that  civilization  was  born  in  the  upper  valley  of  the 
River  Nile;  that  in  the  misty  ages  of  the  past  pure  black  men  in 
Africa  were  observing  the  stars,  were  turning  human  speech 
into  song,  were  discovering  religious  truths  and  laying  the  founda¬ 
tions  of  government,  were  utilizing  the  metals,  developing  agri¬ 
culture  and  inventing  the  primitive  tools;  in  fact,  giving  the 
impulse  which  started  man  on  his  upward  climb;  while  the 
progenitors  of  present-day  Anglo-Saxons  and  Teutons  and  Slavs 
were  hairy  savages  living  in  dark  caves  and  crunching  on  raw 
bones;  savages  that  had  not  yet  the  faintest  glimmer  of  a  knowl¬ 
edge  either  of  religion  or  letters  or  government. 


17 


Of  course,  the  makers  of  history  take  cognizance  of  Egyptian 
civilization;  but  at  the  same  time  they  claim  that  the  ancient 
Egyptians  were  white  people.  This  claim  is  made  for  obvious 
reasons,  but  it  is  made  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  features  of  the 
Sphynx  and  other  early  Egyptian  monuments  are  as  Negroid 
as  the  features  of  the  typical  deck  hand  of  a  Mississippi  River 
steamboat. 

And  in  the  same  manner  these  makers  of  history  have  claimed 
as  white  other  black  and  dark  races  who  have  accomplished 
something.  The  Arabs  and  the  Hindus  and  the  Moors  are  “white 
people.”  Efforts  have  been  made  to  prove  even  that  the  Zulus 
on  account  of  their  bravery  and  prowess  in  battle  are  not  really 
Negroes.  We  can  all  remember  how,  shortly  after  the  close  of 
the  Russo-Japanese  war,  a  number  of  scientifies  and  pseudo- 
scientifics  sought  to  show  that  the  Japanese  people,  after  all, 
were  a  branch  of  the  white  race.  It  is  a  wonder  that  some¬ 
body  didn’t  try  to  prove,  after  he  licked  Jim  Jefferies,  that  Jack 
Johnson  was  a  white  man.  Perhaps  in  the  far  future,  when 
pugilism  is  a  lost  and  forgotten  art,  some  writer  on  the  subject 
will  try  to  prove  it. 

By  these  methods  and  means  the  Negro  has  been  raped  of 
all  credit  that  is  due  him  as  a  contributor  to  civilization.  The 
truth  is:  the  torch  of  civilization  was  lighted  on  the  banks  of 
the  Nile,  and  we  can  trace  the  course  of  that  torch,  sometimes 
flaming,  sometimes  flickering,  and  at  times  all  but  extinguished — 
we  can  trace  it  from  Egypt  around  the  borders  of  the  Mediter¬ 
ranean,  through  Greece  and  Italy,  and  Spain,  on  into  Northern 
Europe.  In  the  hands  of  each  people  that  held  it,  the  torch  of 
civilization  has  grown  brighter  and  brighter,  and  then  died  down 
until  it  was  passed  on  to  other  hands. 

The  fact  that  dark  ages  fell  upon  Africa  and  her  people  is 
no  more  of  a  discredit  than  the  fact  that  dark  ages  fell  upon 
the  buried  empires  of  Asia  Minor,  of  Asia,  and  of  ancient  Greece. 
Races  and  peoples  have  in  their  turn  carried  this  torch  of  civi¬ 
lization  to  a  certain  height,  and  then  sunk  back  under  the  weight 
of  their  own  exertions. 

It  seems  that  there  is  more  truth  than  mythology  in  the  story 
of  Antaeus  and  Hercules.  Hercules  in  wrestling  with  Antaeus 
found  that  each  time  the  giant  was  thrown  he  arose  stronger. 
The  secret  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  earth  was  his  mother,  and  each 


18 


time  he  came  in  contact  with  her  he  gained  renewed  strength. 
Hercules  then  resorted  to  the  strategem  of  holding  him  off  the 
earth  until  his  strength  was  exhausted.  So  with  races  and 
peoples;  it  seems  that  after  they  have  climbed  to  a  certain  height, 
they  must  fall  back  and  lie  close  to  the  earth. 

And  this  reminds  us  of  the  truth  that  all  things  in  the  uni¬ 
verse  move  in  cycles;  so  who  knows  but  that  in  the  whirl  of 
God’s  great  wheel  the  torch  may  not  again  flame  in  the  upper 
valley  of  the  Nile? 

We  ought  to  know  more  about  Africa,  and  if  we  did  we 
would  not  be  ashamed  of  it  but  proud  of  it.  A  knowledge  of  its 
history  would  give  the  background  which  would  enable  the 
Negro  to  hold  up  his  head  among  the  peoples  of  the  world. 

And  it  is  only  just  that  in  the  settlement  to  follow  the  war 
provisions  should  be  made  to  secure  the  soil  of  Africa  and  the 
resources  thereof  for  the  benefit  primarily  of  the  natives;  and  for 
the  establishment  of  governments  that  may  insure  them  self- 
determination  as  rapidly  as  possible. 

But  the  main  interest  of  the  Advancement  Association, 
notwithstanding  its  broad  sympathies  for  all  oppressed  peoples, 
is  not  in  Africa  and  Africans,  but  in  America  and  colored  Ameri¬ 
cans.  And  the  Advancement  Association  knows  enough  to 
realize  that  the  problem  of  the  Negro  in  the  United  States  is  not 
going  to  be  settled  around  the  peace  table  at  Versailles.  It 
knows  that  the  Powers  of  Europe  are  not  going  to  do  very  much, 
even  if  they  could,  to  change  the  laws  and  the  disregard  of  laws  in 
Georgia  and  Alabama  and  Mississippi. 

And  so,  although  the  Advancement  Association  is  willing  to 
accomplish  as  much  as  is  possible  by  bringing  Africa,  which  is 
an  international  question,  before  this  international  body,  it 
realizes  that  the  fight  for  the  democratic  rights  of  the  American 
Negro  must  be  fought  at  close  quarters  right  here  at  home. 

In  fact,  the  fight  for  democracy  for  native  Africans  and 
the  fight  for  democracy  for  people  of  African  descent  in  the  United 
States  are  not  on  the  same  plane.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is, 
the  question  of  the  democratic  rights  of  the  American  Negro  has 
no  recognized  place  at  the  peace  table.  The  Negro  in  the  United 
States  is  not  a  subject  race  and  does  not  accept  the  status  of  a 
subject  race.  He  is  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  with  all  the 
rights  of  American  citizenship  guaranteed  him  by  the  Constitu- 


19 


tion.  Subject  races  all  over  the  world  are  today  struggling  to 
have  certain  rights  of  citizenship  written  for  them  in  the  laws 
of  the  nations  to  which  they  bear  allegiance;  therefore  their 
cases  naturally  go  for  consideration  before  the  international 
tribunal  which  is  now  assembling.  But  the  American  Negro  is 
contending  for  the  fulfillment  of  rights  already  guaranteed  him 
by  the  Constitution  and  for  the  impartial  interpretation  and 
application  of  existing  laws. 

In  other  wrords,  the  American  Negro  is  not  asking  a  favor; 
he  is  not  asking  for  something  that  belongs  to  somebody  else; 
he  is  demanding  only  that  which  is  legally  his;  he  is  laying  claim 
to  that  of  which  he  is  being  wrongfully  deprived.  The  question 
as  to  the  wisdom  of  writing  the  Negro  down  in  the  Constitution 
as  a  citizen  is  aside  from  the  point;  what  is  written  is  written, 
and  these  laws  are  law.  And  the  righteousness,  the  morality, 
the  self-respect  and  the  common  decency  of  the  nation  are  in¬ 
volved  in  seeing  that  these  laws  are  carried  out. 

This  is  the  battle  ground  on  which  the  forces  of  the  Advance¬ 
ment  Association  are  entrenched,  and  it  is  on  this  front  that  we 
intend  to  fight  it  out  without  hesitation,  without  fear  and  without 
compromise  until  the  end  is  achieved. 

The  National  Association  realizes  that  our  fight  is  here  at 
home  and  must  be  fought  at  close  quarters — not  over  there,  but 
right  here.  And  that  is  the  big  job  before  us;  that  is  the  job 
which  we  have  been  tackling  for  ten  years,  with  increasing  force 
and  increasing  earnestness.  It  is  a  big  job.  There  are  many 
phases  of  it;  it  is  complicated;  it  is  complex.  There  is  an  econo¬ 
mic  side.  A  great  many  people  hold  that  all  of  this  question  is 
economic;  that  it  is  simply  a  question  of  exploitation,  just  as  the 
European  countries  exploit  natives  in  Africa.  That  is  good 
as  far  as  it  goes  but  it  does  not  entirely  cover  this  problem  of 
ours  in  the  United  States. 

I  cannot  take  up  this  whole  question  but  there  are  two  phases 
of  which  I  shall  speak.  There  is  a  bitter  race  hatred  and  there 
is  a  national  apathy  and  indifference  with  which  we  have  to 
contend.  I  hardly  know  which  is  the  more  dangerous  and  which 
works  the  greater  damage.  Bitter  race  hatred  is  limited  but 
makes  up  in  activity  for  its  limitation.  But  the  apathy  on  this 
question  of  human  rights  as  it  concerns  the  American  Negro  is 
general,  it  is  widespread.  It  is  a  sort  of  inertia,  it  is  a  thing 


20 


difficult  to  move.  But  that  is  one  of  the  jobs  this  Association 
believes  it  has  before  it,  and  that  is  a  job  we  are  tackling. 

To  do  this,  we  are  using  every  rightful  means  that  we  can 
command.  This  nation  is  indifferent;  it  is  not  thinking  about 
us  as  it  should  be  made  to  think  and  as  it  was  made  to  think 
sixty  years  ago.  The  country  is  very  much  concerned  about 
democracy  abroad,  but  not  very  much  interested  in  democracy 
at  home,  so  far  as  it  applies  to  more  than  ten  million  Negro 
citizens.  But  I  will  tell  you  what  we  are  going  to  do — and  this 
Association  has  mapped  it  out  as  one  of  its  lines  of  attack.  It 
is  our  intention  to  carry  on  an  intelligent,  persistent  and  aggressive 
agitation  until  we  educate  this,  nation,  more  than  educate  it, 
until  we  whip  and  sting  its  conscience,  until  we  awaken  it,  until 
we  startle  it  into  a  realization  that  we  know  what  wTe  want,  we 
know  what  we  are  entitled  to,  and  that  we  are  determined  by  all 
that  is  sacred  to  have  it  and  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less. 

We  have  just  finished  the  great  war  for  democracy.  There 
were  those  in  my  own  race  who  thought  gnd  taught  that  all  we 
needed  to  do  while  black  boys  were  fighting  over  there  was  to 
buy  Liberty  Bonds  and  Thrift  Stamps,  to  assist  in  Red  Cross 
drives  and  other  activities,  keep  our  mouths  shut,  and  the  war 
would  do  the  rest.  I  did  not  suffer  from  any  such  hallucination. 
The  war  is  over,  and  no  miracle  has  happened.  And  no  miracle 
is  going  to  happen.  Miracles  of  that  kind  never  happen.  If 
loyalty  to  the  nation  and  fighting  its  battles  could  give  the 
American  Negro  his  full  rights  he  would  have  had  them  long  ago. 

Only  a  couple  of  weeks  ago  the  newspapers  recorded  the 
lynching  of  an  honorably  discharged  Negro  soldier  in  Kentucky. 
And  what  was  the  crime  for  which  he  was  lynched?  He  had 
resisted  arrest  by  a  constable  He  did  not  even  kill  the  con¬ 
stable;  he  merely  knocked  him  down  and  walked  off,  claiming 
that  a  civil  officer  had  no  right  to  arrest  a  man  in  uniform.  That 
is  an  idea  about  the  law  which  is  common  among  soldiers  and 
sailors.  But  the  mob  got  him  and  lynched  him. 

I  want  to  say  to  my  own  people  that  the  main  thing  we  have 
thus  far  gotten  out  of  this  war  was  not  the  chance  to  fight  in 
France,  but  the  right  to  fight  more  effectively  here  at  home  for 
the  things  in  the  name  of  which  this  wrar  was  waged. 

I  can  never  forget  what  I  felt  on  the  day  that  I  saw  New 
York’s  own  black  regiment,  “The  Buffaloes,”  march  up  Fifth 


21 


Avenue  to  receive  a  stand  of  colors  to  be  presented  by  the  Union 
League  Club.  I  remember  how  I  thrilled  at  the  sight  of  them 
as  they  swung  out  of  Madison  Square  into  the  finest  street  in  the 
world;  how  New  York  looked  on,  perhaps,  with  some  wonder 
that  these  men  could  march  away  so  bravely  to  die  to  gain  for 
others  a  thing  which  they  themselves  were  yet  denied.  I  saw  them 
stop  in  front  of  the  Union  League  Club,  and  heard  a  thousand  voices 
sing  “The  Star  Spangled  Banner”  as  New  York  had  never  heard 
it  sung.  Then  from  the  balcony  of  the  club  the  Governor  of  the 
State  came  down  and  presented  the  colors.  And  as  he  gave  the 
flag  into  their  keeping  he  raised  his  voice,  trembling  with  emotion, 
and  cried  out,  “Bring  it  back!  Bring  it  back,  boys!  Bring  it 
back!”  xAnd  the  answer  welled  up  in  my  heart:  Never  you 
fear,  Mr.  Governor,  never  you  fear,  gentlemen  of  the  Union  League 
Club,  they  will  bring  it  back;  perhaps  tattered  and  torn,  but 
they  will  bring  it  back.  And  they  will  bring  it  back  as  they 
have  always  done  whenever  it  has  been  entrusted  to  their  hands, 
without  once  letting  it  trail  in  the  dust,  without  putting  a  single 
stain  of  dishonor  upon  it.  Then  it  will  be  for  you,  Mr.  Governor, 
for  you,  gentlemen  of  the  Union  League  Club,  for  you,  people  of 
America,  to  remove  the  only  stains  that  are  upon  it,  stains  that 
are  upon  it  as  these  men  carry  it  into  battle,  the  stains  of  lynching, 
of  disfranchisement,  of  Jim  Crowism,  of  injustice  and  oppression. 
The  record  of  black  men  on  the  fields  of  France  and  Flanders 
give  us  the  greater  right  to  point  to  that  flag  and  say  to  the  nation, 
“Those  stains  are  still  upon  it;  they  dim  its  stars  and  soil  its 
stripes;  wash  them  out!  Wash  them  out!” 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  about  the  atrocities  committed 
during  this  terrible  war  by  Huns  and  Turks;  but  there  are  millions 
of  intelligent  Americans  who  do  not  know,  who  are  not  con¬ 
cerned  with  the  fact  that  every  year  atrocities  are  committed 
in  this  enlightened  land  that  would  cause  envy  in  the  heart  of 
the  most  benighted  Turk. 

Only  a  few  days  ago  four  Negroes  were  lynched  in  Mississippi, 
accused  of  having  killed  a  white  physician.  Two  of  them  were 
young  men  in  their  early  twenties,  and  the  other  two  wrere  girls 
still  in  their  teens,  sisters  they  were,  one  of  them  only  sixteen. 
And  this  younger  sister  was  about  to  become  a  mother.  That 
fact  I  learned  from  the  account  of  the  lynching  given  in  the  prin¬ 
cipal  white  newspaper  of  Mississippi.  1  believe  when  the  truth 


about  this  case  is  known  it  will  show  that  the  white  man  who  was 
killed  was  the  father  of  the  unborn  babe  that  was  lynched. 

There  is  the  case  of  Jim  Mcllheron  less  than  a  year  ago  in 
Tennessee,  accused  of  killing  two  white  men  in  a  street  fight, 
and  tortured  with  red-hot  irons,  then  burned  alive  at  the  stake. 
Jim  Mcllheron  was  one  of  three  Negroes  who  within  nine  months 
were  tortured  and  burned  alive  in  the  single  state  of  Tennessee. 

The  records  as  kept  by  the  department  of  research  at  Tuske- 
gee  Institute  show  that  during  1918,  while  white  and  black  Ameri¬ 
cans  were  fighting  side  by  side  to  make  the  world  safe  for  demo¬ 
cracy,  white  mobs  here  at  home  were  lynching  58  Negroes,  5 
of  them  being  women.  These  records  also  show  that  in  only 
one-fourth  of  these  cases  was  there  even  a  charge  of  assault  or 
attempted  assault  on  women.  Eighteen  of  these  lynchings 
occurred  in  the  State  of  Georgia. 

I  ask  not  only  black  Americans  but  white  Americans,  are 
you  not  ashamed  of  lynching?  Do  you  not  hang  your  head  in 
humiliation  to  think  that  this  is  the  only  civilized  country  in  the 
world,  no,  more  than  that,  the  only  spot  on  earth  where  a  human 
being  may  be  tortured  with  hot  irons  and  then  burned  alive. 
The  nation  is  today  striving  to  lead  the  moral  forces  of  the  world 
in  the  support  of  the  weak  against  the  strong;  well.  I'll  tell  you 
it  can’t  do  it  until  it  conquers  and  crushes  out  this  monster 
in  its  own  midst. 

When  I  had  the  honor  of  going  before  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  plead  for  those  colored  soldiers  who  were  con¬ 
cerned  in  the  Houston  affair,  I  told  him  of  the  case  of  Jim  Mc¬ 
llheron,  describing  it  in  detail  to  him,  and  when  I  had  finished 
my  recital  the  President  said  to  me,  “I  had  not  heard  about  it,” 
and  he  had  not  heard  about  it.  But  that  is  the  sad  commentary— 
that  in  this  great,  free,  enlightened  democracy  a  human  being 
could  be  burned  alive  at  the  stake  and  the  head  of  the  nation 
not  even  hear  about  it.  But  we  are  going  to  make  them  hear 
about  it,  not  only  the  head  of  the  nation,  but  we  are  going  to 
put  the  raw,  naked,  brutal  facts  of  this  question  before  the  con¬ 
science  of  the  whole  nation  until  we  make  it  sick. 

Our  President  is  in  Europe  endeavoring  to  establish  his 
lofty  ideals  and  principles:  The  guarantee  of  peace,  the  spread 
of  democracy,  the  safeguarding  of  liberty  and  the  protection  of 
the  weak;  we  are  praying  that  he  will  succeed,  for  our  own  wel- 


23 


fare  is  involved  in  his  success.  But  if  he  does  not  succeed  in 
bringing  the  whole  world  around  to  his  enlightened  views,  we 
hope  he  will  not  feel  absolutely  discouraged;  he  still  has  a  vast 
field  in  the  nation  over  which  he  presides. 

Talk  about  democracy,  and  human  brotherhood  and  the 
protection  of  the  weak,  it  will  all  result  in  sheer  hypocrisy,  in  what 
St.  Paul  calls  a  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal,  unless  we 
apply  those  principles  here  at  home. 

And  now,  if  you  are  ashamed  of  these  things,  there  is  some¬ 
thing  that  you  can  do  and  that  is  join  and  support  this  great 
movement.  I  claim  that  the  National  Association  for  the  Advance¬ 
ment  of  Colored  People  is  the  only  absolutely  democratic 
movement  in  the  United  States.  It  is  a  great  American  move¬ 
ment.  This  is  not  a  race  movement.  If  anyone  has  the  idea 
that  the  plan  of  this  organization  is  merely  a  race  movement, 
he  is  mistaken.  The  platform  of  this  organization  is  so  broad 
that  every  man,  woman  and  child  who  loves  justice,  who  loves 
liberty,  can  stand  upon  it,  regardless  of  race  or  color.  And  so 
I  appeal  to  white  men  and  white  women  everywhere,  North  and 
South;  to  my  own  people  everywhere;  to  all  white  people  who 
love  justice  and  to  all  black  people  who  love  liberty,  to  join  the 
ranks,  the  fighting  ranks  of  this  Association  and  help  to  make 
America  a  democracy  in  deeds  as  well  as  in  words. 


V 


25 


SUMMARY  OF  ADDRESS  OF 
DR.  WILLIAM  HENRY  SHEPPARD.* 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  meeting  was  an  address  by 
William  Henry  Sheppard  of  Louisville,  Kentucky.  Dr.  Sheppard 
went  as  a  missionary  to  Africa  in  1890.  He  led  the  first-known 
expedition  into  the  forbidden  land  of  King  Lukenga,  found  a  new 
tribe  called  the  Bakuka,  and  discovered  a  lake  in  the  interior  of 
the  Congo  region.  In  1910  this  lake  was  named  Lake  Sheppard 
by  the  Belgian  Government. 

Dr.  Sheppard  is  a  graduate  of  Hampton  Normal  and  In¬ 
dustrial  Institute  and  of  the  Stillman  Theological  Institute  of 
Tuscaloosa,  Alabama.  In  recognition  of  his  services  as  an  ex¬ 
plorer  he  was  made  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  'Geographical  Society 
of  London. 

This  pioneer  into  Central  Africa  did  much  to  bring  the  cause 
of  native  Africans  close  to  the  hearts  of  his  audience.  In  a  speech 
frequently  intermingled  with  words  and  expressions  in  African 
dialect  he  told  of  the  lives  of  those  far-off  peoples  who  are  not 
naturally  unkind,  and  who  fight  the  invader  only  to  protect  them¬ 
selves.  If  the  visitor  can  satisfy  the  inhabitants  of  an  African 
village  as  to  his  good  intentions,  he  is  made  welcome.  The  tribes 
among  which  Dr.  Sheppard  had  lived  had  reached  a  high  state 
of  civilization.  They  manufactured  cloth,  thread,  and  fashioned 
needles  of  iron;  they  made  hats  of  cowrie  shells  and  had 
razors  which  were  deftly  wielded  by  the  women  who  are  the 
African  barbers. 

Dr.  Sheppard  then  related  how  one  day  a  hostile  African 
king  was  reported  to  be  close  at  hand  with  his  forces.  At  the 
risk  of  his  own  life  the  missionary  travelled  to  the  camp  of  this 
invader.  He  was  received  and  ushered  into  the  chamber  of  the 
king.  And  there  he  saw  eighty-one  right  hands  which  had  been 
cut  off  and  were  in  process  of  being  cured!  Above  them  waved 
the  flag  of  Belgium  and  the  king  on  being  questioned  produced 
papers  from  Belgian  Leopold,  of  evil  fame,  asking  for  ivory,  rub¬ 
ber  or  hands  of  men! 

Dr.  Sheppard  revealed  these  atrocities  on  the  Congo  and  was 
thereupon  charged  with  criminal  libel  and  was  arrested  and 

*  Dr.  Sheppard’s  address  is  reported  by  the  Editor,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  stenographic 
notes  were  incomplete.  The  substance  of  the  address  is  here  given. 


26 


indicted  by  King  Leopold  II  of  Belgium  in  April.  1908.  He  was 
exonerated  and  liberated  after  eight  months’  imprisonment. 

Dr.  Sheppard  insisted  that  the  horrors  of  the  Congo  were 
the  immediate  result  of  Leopold’s  personal  interest  and  not  con¬ 
nected  with  the  interests  of  the  Belgian  Gpvernment.  He  spoke 
of  his  pleasant  acquaintance  with  Vandervelde,  the  noted  Belgian 
socialist,  who  defended  him  when  he  was  indicted  by  the  royal 
government. 


( 


THE  FUTURE  OF  AFRICA. 

A  Statement  Prepared  by  W.  E.  Burghardt  Du  Bois  and 
Adopted  by  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  National 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People, 
with  an  Introduction  by  Mary  White  Ovington,  Chair¬ 
man,  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Association,  Reprinted 
from  The  Crisis  for  January,  1919 


Introduction:  Mary  White  Ovington. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  European  war  Dr.  W.  E.  Burg¬ 
hardt  Du  Bois  wrote  an  article  for  the  Atlantic  Monthly  on  “The 
African  Roots  of  War.”*  Of  the  many  discussions  of  the  cause 
of  the  great  conflict  none  was  more  timely  or  important.  In 
the  article  in  question  the  writer  points  out  that  today,  as  so 
often  in  the  past,  the  wealth  of  Africa  leads  to  a  common  lust 
for  conquest  and  exploitation  of  the  native  population.  This 
was  displayed  in  its  most  barbarous  form  in  the  old  days  of  the 
Belgium  Congo  Free  State  and  in  the  recent  days  of  the  German 
colonies.  But  none  of  the  colonial  powers  are  without  guilt  since 
all  look  upon  the  natives,  not  as  people  to  be  educated  and  en¬ 
couraged  to  self-development,  but  as  ignorant  laborers  to  be  used 
for  the  production  of  wealth  which  the  European  appropriates 
later  to  spend  in  his  own  land.  This  exploitation  carries  with  it 
intense  race  prejudice  and  results  increasingly  in  confining  the 
black  man  to  those  places  where  life,  for  climatic,  historical  and 
political  reasons,  is  most  difficult  to  live  and  most  easily  dominated 
by  Europe  for  Europe’s  gain. 

This  is  the  picture  of  Africa  today,  but  now,  with  the  end 
of  the  war,  we  look  to  the  picture  of  the  Africa  of  the  future. 
This  future  is  being  widely  discussed  and  will  be  one  of  the  most 
important  of  the  problems  to  be  decided  at  the  Peace  Confer¬ 
ence.  The  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored 
People  stands  on  the  following  platform  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Du 
Bois: 


*  Reprinted  by  the  N.  A.  A.  C.  P. 


28 


THE  FUTURE  OF  AFRICA— A  PLATFORM. 

1.  The  barter  of  colonies  without  regard  to  the  wishes 
or  welfare  of  the  inhabitants  or  the  welfare  of  the  world  in  general 
is  a  custom  to  which  this  war  should  put  an  end,  since  it  is  a  fruit¬ 
ful  cause  of  dissension  among  nations,  a  danger  to  the  status 
of  civilized  labor,  a  temptation  to  unbridled  exploitation,  and  an 
excuse  for  unspeakable  atrocities  committed  against  natives. 

2.  It  is  clear  that  at  least  one  of  Germany’s  specific  objects 
in  the  present  war  was  the  extension  of  her  African  colonies 
at  the  expense  of  France  and  Portugal. 

3.  As  a  result  of  the  war,  the  German  colonies  in  Africa 
have  been  seized  by  the  Allies,  and  the  question  of  their  disposition 
must  come  before  the  Peace  Conference.  Responsible  English 
statesmen  have  announced  that  their  return  to  Germany  is 
unthinkable. 

4.  However,  to  take  German  Africa  from  one  imperial 
master,  even  though  a  bad  one,  and  hand  it  over  to  another, 
even  though  a  better  one,  would  inevitably  arouse  a  suspicion 
of  selfish  aims  on  the  part  of  the  Allies  and  would  leave  after 
the  war  the  grave  questions  of  future  colonial  possessions  and 
government. 

5.  While  the  principle  of  self-determination  which  has  been 
recognized  as  fundamental  by  the  Allies  cannot  be  wholly  applied 
to  semi-civilized  peoples,  yet,  as  the  English  Prime  Minister 
has  acknowledged,  it  can  be  partially  applied. 

6.  The  public  opinion  which  in  the  case  of  the  former  Ger¬ 
man  colonies  should  have  the  decisive  voice  is  composed  of : 

(a)  The  Chiefs  and  intelligent  Negroes  among  the  twelve 
and  one-half  million  natives  of  German  Africa,  especially  those 
trained  in  the  government  and  mission  schools. 

(b)  The  twelve  million  civilized  Negroes  of  the  United 
States. 

(c)  Educated  persons  of  Negro  descent  in  South  America 
and  the  West  Indies. 

(d)  The  independent  Negro  governments  of  Abyssinia, 
Liberia,  and  Haiti. 

(e)  The  educated  classes  among  the  Negroes  of  French 
West  Africa  and  Equatorial  Africa  and  in  British  Uganda,  Nigeria, 


Basutoland,  Nyassaland,  Swaziland,  Sierra  Leone,  Gold  Coast, 
Gambia  and  Bechuanaland,  and  the  four  and  one-half  millions  of 
colored  people  in  the  Union  of  South  Africa. 

These  classes  comprise  today  the  thinking  classes  of  the 
future  Negro  world  and  their  wish  should  have  weight  in  the 
future  disposition  of  the  German  colonies. 

7.  The  first  step  toward  ascertaining  the  desires,  aspirations 
and  grievances  of  these  people  should  be  the  calling  together 
of  a  Pan-African  Congress,  to  meet  in  Paris  some  time  during 
the  sessions  of  the  Peace  Conference. 

8.  If  the  world  after  the  war  decided  to  reconstruct  Africa 
in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  Negro  race  and  the  best 
interests  of  civilization,  the  process  might  be  carried  out  as 
follows:  The  former  German  colonies,  with  one  million  square 
miles  and  twelve  and  one-half  millions  of  inhabitants,  could  be 
internationalized.  To  this  could  be  added  by  negotiation  the 
800,000  square  miles  and  nine  million  inhabitants  of  Portuguese 
Africa.  It  is  not  impossible  that  Belgium  could  be  persuaded 
to  add  to  such  a  state  the  900,000  square  miles  and  nine  million 
natives  of  the  Congo,  making  an  international  Africa,  with  over 
two  and  one-half  million  square  miles  of  land  and  over  twenty 
million  people. 

9.  This  re-organized  Africa  could  be  under  the  guidance 
of  organized  civilization.  The  Governing  International  Com¬ 
mission  should  represent,  not  simply  governments,  but  modern 
culture — science,  commerce,  social  reform  and  religious  philan¬ 
thropy. 

10.  With  these  two  principles  the  practical  policies  to  be 
followed  out  in  the  government  of  the  new  states  should  involve 
a  thorough  and  complete  system  of  modern  education  built  upon 
the  present  government,  religion  and  customary  law  of  the 
natives.  There  should  be  no  violent  tampering  with  the  curiously 
efficient  African  institutions  of  local  self-government  through 
the  family  and  the  tribe;  there  should  be  no  attempt  at  sudden 
“conversion”  by  religious  propaganda.  Obviously  deleterious 
customs  and  unsanitary  usages  must  gradually  be  abolished  and 
careful  religious  teaching  given,  but  the  general  government 
set  up  from  without  must  follow  the  example  of  the  best  colonial 
administrators  and  build  on  recognized  established  foundations 
rather  than  from  entirely  new  and  theoretical  plans 


30 


11.  The  chief  effort  to  modernize  Africa  should  be  through 
schools.  Within  ten  years  twenty  million  black  children  ought 
to  be  in  school.  Within  a  generation  young  Africa  should  know 
the  essential  outlines  of  modern  culture  and  groups  of  bright 
African  students  should  be  going  to  the  world’s  great  universities. 
From  the  beginning  the  actual  general  government  should  use 
both  colored  and  white  officials  and  natives  should  be  gradually 
worked  in.  Taxation  and  industry  could  follow  the  newer  ideals 
of  industrial  democracy,  avoiding  private  land  monopoly  and 
poverty,  promoting  co-operation  in  production  and  the  social¬ 
ization  of  income. 

12.  Is  such  a  state  possible?  Those  who  believe  in  men; 
who  know  what  black  men  have  done  in  human  history;  who 
have  taken  pains  to  follow  even  superficially  the  story  of  the  rise 
of  the  Negro  in  Africa,  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Americas  of  our 
day,  know  that  the  widespread  modern  contempt  of  Negroes 
rests  upon  no  scientific  foundation  worth  a  moment’s  attention. 
It  is  nothing  more  than  a  vicious  habit  of  mind.  It  could  as 
easily  be  overthrown  as  our  belief  in  war,  as  our  international 
hatreds,  as  our  old  conception  of  the  status  of  women,  as  our 
fear  of  educating  the  masses,  and  as  our  belief  in  the  necessity 
of  poverty.  We  can,  if  we  will,  inaugurate  on  the  Dark  Con¬ 
tinent  a  last  great  crusade  for  humanity.  With  Africa  redeemed, 
Asia  would  be  safe  and  Europe  indeed  triumphant. 


NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION 


FOR  THE 


ADVANCEMENT  OF  COLORED  PEOPLE 

Official  Organ — THE  CRISIS,  published  Monthly. 
January,  1919,  165  Branches  in  38  States. 
Membership,  44,000. 


NATIONAL  OFFICERS 
President 

Moorfield  Storey 

Vice-Presidents 
Archibald  H.  Grimke 
Rev.  John  Haynes  Holmes 
Bishop  John  Hurst 
C'apt.  Arthur  B.  Spingarn 
Oswald  Garrison  Villard 


EXECUTIVE  OFFICERS 


Chairman  of  the  Board,  Mary  White  Ovington,  New  York 
O.  G.  Villard,  Treasurer 

Dr.  W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois,  Director  of  Publications  and  Research 
John  R.  Shillady,  Secretary 
James  Weldon  Johnson,  Field  Secretary 
W  alter  F.  White  Assistant  Secretary 


BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS 


Baltimore 

Bishop  John  Hurst 


New  York 

Paul  Kennaday 
John  E.  Milholland 
Mary  White  Ovington 
Capt.  Arthur  B.  Spingarn 
Major  J.  E.  Spingarn' 
Charles  H.  Studin 
Oswald  Garrison  Villard 
Lillian  D.  Wald 


Boston 

Joseph  Prince  Loud 
Moorfield  Storey 
Butler  R.  Wilson 


Buffalo 

Mary  B.  Talbert 


William  English  Walling 


Chicago 

Jane  Addams 
Dr.  C.  E.  Bentley 


Philadelphia 

Dr.  William  A.  Sinclair 


M  emphis 


Springfield 

Rev.  G.  R.  Waller 


R.  R.  Church 


New  Haven 

George  W.  Crawford 


St.  Louis 

Hon.  Charles  Nagel 


New  York 

Rev.  Hutchens  C.  Bishop 


Wilberforce 

Col.  Chas.  Young,  U.  S. 


Dr.  W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois 
Rev.  John  Haynes  Holmes 
Dr.  V.  Morton  Jones 
Florence  Kelley 


Washington 

Prof.  Geo.  AVilliam  Cook 
Archibald  H.  Grimke 
Charles  Edward  Russell 


NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION 

FOR  THE 

ADVANCEMENT  OF  COLORED  PEOPLE 


1.  To  abolish  legal  injustice  against  Negroes. 

2.  To  stamp  out  race  discriminations. 

3.  To  prevent  lynchings,  burnings  and  torturings  of  black  people. 

4.  To  assure  to  every  citizen  of  color  the  common  rights  of  American 

citizenship. 

President  Wilson  declared  for  woman  suffrage  as  a  rear  measure. 
Black  men  are  not  allowed  to  vote  in  many  of  the  states  of  the 
Union,  despite  the  Fifteenth  Amendment. 

5.  To  compel  equal  accommodations  in  railroad  travel,  irrespective 

of  color. 

G.  To  secure  for  colored  children  an  equal  opportunity  to  public  school 
education  through  a  fair  apportionment  of  public  education  funds. 
Unless  the  colored  child  can  he  educated  he  is  at  a  fearful  dis¬ 
advantage.  An  uneducated  Negro  population  menaces  national 
well-being .  This  education  should  he  of  hand  and  brain  and  can 
be  adequately  done  for  all  Negro  children,  not  the  fortunate  few, 
only  by  public  schools. 

7.  To  emancipate  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name,  a  race  of  nearly  12,000,000 
American-born  citizens. 

The  only  means  we  can  employ  are  education,  organization,  agitation, 
publicity — the  force  of  an  enlightened  public  opinion. 

THE  WORK  IS  SUPPORTED  ENTIRELY  BY  VOLUNTARY 
CONTRIBUTIONS  AND  MEMBERSHIPS. 

Send  contributions  to 

OSWALD  ''GARRISON  VILLARD,  Treasurer. 

70  Fifth  Avenue,  New  Ytork 


